


Catch A Joker

by Serenn



Category: Banana Bus Squad
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Awkward Flirting, Bad Jokes, Catch A Lover, Friends to Lovers, I Don't Even Know, Instagram, Just Stupidity Really, Luke is a bit of an ass, M/M, Misunderstandings, One Shot, Poor Evan tbh, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Things Go Wrong, Video Game, how does one title??, in a good way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-16
Updated: 2017-05-16
Packaged: 2018-11-01 11:51:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10921257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serenn/pseuds/Serenn
Summary: Luke posts a video, major misunderstandings ensue, Jon doesn't care but Evan does.The result? Everyone decides to plot against Evan because he's easy to mess with.





	Catch A Joker

**Author's Note:**

> This one just randomly happened out of nowhere... My first attempt at H2O Vanoss, sponsored by CaRtOoNz' instagram and a video game.
> 
> Hope you like the mess it became. :]

Jonathan had his reasons for keeping his face hidden. He was the slacker, that kid that always sat in front of the convenience store on every day but Tuesday, the soot-covered rascal who got his first real job at the local garage, the only employee with a genuine smile.

He really didn’t want that to change.

Luke respected his choice. He himself hardly cared, possibly because his YouTube channel was in no way as massive as Jonathan’s and he was hardly ever recognised on the streets. But he could tell that people went crazy about every bit of Jonathan they could get – emphasis on _Jonathan_ , not Delirious – and Luke found it rather amusing.

Once, while visiting Jonathan, Luke had the idea for an instagram video, just for the heck of it. Jonathan had been surprisingly okay with it, so, on the same day, a clip was uploaded with his voice in the background. The reaction was immediate and the comment section was popcorn-worthy.

Instagram skits like these began to happen more frequently, to the point where Luke would just waltz into his best friend’s house with the camera rolling already.

Except this time, he had to stop abruptly in the doorway, because what he was hearing definitely were moans. Luke was about to walk back out and ask about the girl later when another voice joined in, which _definitely_ didn’t belong to a girl.

“What if he catches us?”, Jonathan was giggling from his room.

“Then you’ll help me find my clothes and we’ll run for it, m’kay?”

Luke raised his eyebrows as he stared up the staircase. _Evan?_

“M’kay, lover… Your banana is so huge…”

“Yeah? You like it?”

“Oh god yeah, it’s so delicious…”

Luke decided to just leave once the cringeworthy conversation turned into very awkward moans and odd groans. He shrugged once more at the camera, winked and ended the recording. Not a Tuesday afternoon he had expected.

Later that evening, he was playing some casual Rainbow Six Siege with Bryce and Ryan. Jonathan had decided to begin his playthrough of Outlast 2 and join the three a few hours later, for a proper recording session.

“Ohm, cover me”, Luke muttered as he kept his aim at the door. He waited for Ryan to get in position before he rushed it, quickly scanning the area. He immediately heard a gunshot behind him and when he whirled back around, Ryan was dead on the ground. Somebody stood over him, gun aimed straight at Luke’s head. However, the following shot didn’t wipe out Luke but rather his attacker. Bryce stepped out behind the collapsing player and laughter erupted from Luke’s headphones.

“I didn’t know Bryce listened to being called Ohm”, he pointed out, greeted by complaints from both Ohm and Bryce. “You two sound like fucking hens in a chicken coop.”

“It could be worse”, Bryce mused, the grin audible in his voice. Luke just shook his head as they geared up for the next round.

“Yeah, it could. You could sound like Jonathan.”

“Why are you saying that?”

Luke faked a heavy sigh and laughed a little at the memory, helping Ryan secure the walls in-game as he spoke.

“Went to his place earlier today, he had some company.”

Ryan chuckled a little. “Company?”

“Yeah”, Luke confirmed. “Company… If you know what I’m sayin’.”

“Wait, when did you head over there?”, Bryce asked curiously. Luke delayed his response to find a secure spot to defend from.

“Uh, about 5.”

“We were recording around then though”, Bryce murmured. “Ryan?”

“Yeah, we did”, the third man muttered, too focused on the door to participate much.

“Just you three?”, Luke asked, cursing as he got shot down out of nowhere.

“No, it was us and Evan”, Bryce said, the only person left after Ryan suddenly got himself killed too. But Luke was curious now.

“What were you playing? Some weird Gmod roleplay?”

Bryce was being driven out of his position near the hostage and tried his best to stand his ground. The other two watched him hold out for a while before Ryan replied for the youngest.

“It’s a new game we found, Catch A Lover”, he explained. “It’s weird but kinda funny. Basically about a wife cheating on her husband with a lover, the lover tries to escape and needs to find his clothes and the keys while the husband tries to catch him.”

“Sounds pretty stupid to me”, Luke said. “So when Jonathan was moaning about bananas, was that - ?”

“Bananas give you health as the lover”, Bryce joined back in, having managed to clutch the situation and bring home another win. “Yeah, the first few seconds of the round are always weird, especially with Jonathan and Evan.”

“I recorded a part of what I heard walking in on y’all and without context, it sounds pretty neat”, Luke grinned. They put their game on hold so that Luke could send them the clip. He could hear the sound coming through the other two’s discords which was followed by laughter.

“Please tell me you posted it anyway”, Ryan said hopefully.

“Nah, didn’t.”

“It would be funny though because none of us uploaded it yet”, Bryce admitted.

“What about Evan?”, Luke asked, slowly beginning to like the idea.

“His recording was corrupted, there is no video.”

There was a silence in which Luke thought about it. Two minutes later, it was up on his instagram, for all to see and hear.

An hour later, the match was angrily interrupted by a discord alert followed by a screaming Delirious.

“Luke, what the fuck?!”, he yelled, laughing like crazy despite it all.

The collective laughter continued for the entire following round (which they shamelessly lost) and once it was over, the three finally explained what they had done. What they hadn’t expected was Jonathan’s reaction.

“Yes, please, let’s do it”, he laughed. “You didn’t upload your videos yet, right?”

“YouTube is still trying to process mine, but I’ll cancel it”, Ryan explained. “I’ve still got some Dead by Daylight killer rounds to upload instead.”

“I haven’t even edited mine yet”, Bryce admitted. “Are you really gonna go through with it?”

“Yes, fuck yes”, the older one grinned. Luke heard his phone go off and zoned out for a second to check the message. A smile began to form on his face.

Evan: **hey, sorry man, can’t get through to jon but he said you’d be recording w him?**

Evan: **rly need to talk to him, could u tell him to call back?**

“Jon, answer your goddamn phone!”, Luke yelled.

“What? I-“ Jonathan fell silent. “Oh. Fuck.”

6 missed calls and three texts. It hadn’t even been that long since Luke uploaded the video. Would Evan really be angry about it? Two minutes later, Ryan got a text from Evan as well. A few seconds later, it was Bryce’s turn. And Jonathan’s missed calls number just kept rising.

“Ignore them, it’d ruin the fun”, Jonathan insisted, so they all decided to play along and keep quiet.

“Here, I’ll respond”, Luke announced regardless. “He’ll be too suspicious if it’s all of us.”

He picked up his phone again and returned to Evan’s contact. His fingers were flying across the keyboard as he typed out his response.

Luke: **we’re in hospital, visiting bryce. is it important?**

Evan’s response was immediate. Luke half imagined the guy pacing in his room, intently staring at his phone and hoping for someone to get back to him. This man didn’t know patience.

Evan: **shit, didn’t know, is he doing ok?**

Evan: **and no, it can wait, thanks though**

Luke: **yeah, got in an accident visiting us in nc, hes a bit bruised, but he should be back out in a few days**

Luke: **np man**

Evan: **keep me updated?**

Luke: **sure**

Evan: **awesome, thnx**

Evan: **talk later**

Luke: **take care man**

Luke just smirked as he put his phone away. He briefly told the others about his little conversation with Evan before rejoining the game.

“Awh, he told me to get better soon”, Bryce said a few minutes later, laughing lightly.

“He’s still after me though”, Ryan sighed. “Should I respond?”

Jonathan’s hum sounded through the call. “Yeah, why not”, he decided eventually. “Tell him your recorder broke or you had issues with it, just something like that.”

“Alrighty…”, Ryan murmured, voice trailing off as he reluctantly replied to Evan’s texts. A few minutes later, he was back in the game. They played the next round in silence, occasionally interrupted by the sound of Jonathan’s phone, announcing another text from Evan.

“Guys, do you want to have a recording marathon?”, Ryan suggested a bit later. “I wanted to take a break from YouTube for a while, I’d just need some more backup footage.”

“Oh, same”, Bryce proclaimed. “I wouldn’t mind at all.”

“How about we do that and then you guys come visit us?”, Jon suggested. “You fuckers still haven’t been over.”

“Ah come on, I’m all the way up in Illinois –“

“Yeeees and a certain someone is aaaall the way over in Georgia.”

Bryce just laughed at Jonathan’s fake offense but once the jokes passed, they decided to go through with their plan in earnest. After quitting their game, they negotiated games to play and dates for their stay, settling with Jon’s house as their meeting point. It was going to be an interesting week…

* * *

Evan cursed as he ended his fifth call of the day at 8 in the morning. He bit his lip angrily, immediately regretting his action when it hurt a little too much. Usually he didn’t make a big deal out of someone not getting back to him at once but this was _Jonathan_ , the one guy who never took more than an hour to respond. Evan slowly brought up Luke’s instagram again and played the video, face slowly heating up the longer he watched.

He himself wasn’t even sure why it made him so nervous (or maybe he was just in denial about it) but he did know that his twitter feed was blowing up over it. The worst part was that he couldn’t even give a satisfactory response. Just saying, _yes, hey, that wasn’t real, I didn’t have awkward sex with H2O Delirious, thanks,_ wasn’t going to work without proof.

Sure, he could just not care. But since when was that easy?

He could also make up an excuse. But, if Jon didn’t care about the video at all, then Evan caring enough to lie would just weird him out. Unsurprisingly enough, Evan really didn’t want that. The only safe pass out of this situation would be to upload the video but Evan didn’t have it. His video messed up and since he didn’t actually have intros for his own videos, the audio itself didn’t explain anything. Ryan apparently had similar issues and Bryce was in hospital. Evan just felt too bad to bother the youngster with something as seemingly minor as a misinterpreted video. And Jonathan was suddenly off the radar entirely.

Evan sighed and left his room to make himself some coffee. He’d lay low and just edit for the day. If Jonathan responded, then great. If not, well…shit.

* * *

“This is the most stupid thing I’ve ever done”, Bryce giggled as he slowly turned into a mummy. Once he had arrived in North Carolina, Luke had picked him up and driven him to the local hospital where the older one had gotten tons of bandages just to drive the joke even further. Bryce sat patiently on a hospital bed, testing the sling which his arm lay in. “I feel bad for doing this to Evan, he really seems to care.”

“He just wants to save his ass”, Luke laughed, wrapping up Bryce’s leg. “I’m only messing, of course he cares, but it’s just a joke. It’ll be over soon enough.”

A few minutes later, Bryce looked like he had gotten in a rather serious car accident. A picture of him and Luke was on the latter’s instagram, Bryce sporting a pained smile and Luke looking sympathetic.

“Alright, back to my place”, Luke yawned. “We’ll pick up Ryan tomorrow and head to Jonathan’s after.”

“Sweet.”

* * *

Evan collapsed on his bed after a long day of too much editing. No response from Jonathan of course. It definitely wasn’t eating at his mind or anything. The idea of actually sleeping with his best friend definitely hadn’t crossed him at all. And he definitely hadn’t considered heading east to confront the guy in person, not at all.

He hated himself for being suspicious. After all, Bryce was in hospital and his little problem should hardly matter. It was just the fact that Jonathan himself wasn’t talking that made Evan doubt the seriousness of the situation. Jon also hadn’t uploaded at his usual time. Could it be a joke?

Against his better judgement, Evan switched on his phone and returned to instagram, specifically Luke’s feed. To his surprise, a new photo had replaced the video for top spot and it hurt to see Bryce in hospital.

How on earth could he shove it off as a joke? Evan cursed at the dark ceiling.

When Evan woke up, he was sitting at his desk, his nose typing the letter T continuously over a google search on his computer screen. He blinked against the sunlight, trying to remember when he had gotten out of bed. Once his dizziness had faded to a bearable degree, Evan got up, making papers slide off his desk on the way. He warily picked them up and frowned when he recognised the words “Airlines” and “Charlotte” on one of them.

An airline ticket to Charlotte, North Carolina, at noon. How he had managed to do that in his half asleep state last night was a mystery to him but either way, he had a decision to make – cancel or go. Jonathan still hadn’t responded and it was slowly driving him insane, so, without a doubt, he would love to talk to him in person. But what would he think if that was Evan’s only reason to visit? It sounded more clingy than he wanted it to be.

Evan left an hour later, after packing and uploading another few videos in advance, and took his randomly booked flight to the east coast to visit Bryce in hospital. If he got a chance to talk to Jon, that was fine. But he was 100% there for Bryce. Yes.

God he was pathetic.

* * *

Evan: **hey ryan, I gotta bail recording tonight, stuff happened**

Ryan: **no problem, I was gonna say the same actually**

Ryan: **everything ok?**

Evan: **yeah don’t worry, I’m visiting people down south and checking on Bryce on the way**

Ryan: **oh yeah I’m going too! Leaving in a few actually**

Evan: **are you gonna be ok w videos etc?**

Ryan: **yeah, why shouldn’t I?**

Evan: **you said ur recorder had issues?**

Ryan: **I didn’t**

Evan: **??**

Ryan: *****I didn’t plug it in haha, I thought it was broken**

Evan: **…oh**

Ryan: **yeah, silly me**

Ryan: **gotta go, talk later?**

Evan: **yee sure, cya**

Ryan: **bye**

Ryan put his phone down, sighing heavily. He’d almost given himself away. It was a dodgy save but as long as Evan didn’t question it, it was good enough. He texted the other three an update on the situation before zipping his suitcase shut and carrying it over to his car before finally locking up the house and driving off to the airport.

* * *

North Carolina hadn’t changed since the last time Evan had visited. Not that he would’ve cared if it had, the guy had other things on his mind. He had tried calling Jonathan a few more times but he still didn’t pick up. At that point, Evan had actually begun to worry.

He called a cab to bring him to Jonathan’s neighborhood, deciding to walk the last few turns. As nervous as he was, Evan sounded the doorbell anyway. A voice shouted something from inside so he opened the door and entered.

“Jon?”, he called, feeling a bit odd. After not hearing the other’s voice for days, it felt strange to hear it now.

“Upstairs!”, Jon shouted again and Evan took the staircase up to the top floor. Jonathan hadn’t changed the place much so Evan found it easy to find him in the same room he was usually in, his office.

When Jonathan heard Evan enter, he turned around in his chair and sent Evan a smile, not at all surprised by his presence.

“Hey”, he giggled, almost as if he knew something Evan didn’t. He wouldn’t be surprised.

“Hey?”, Evan frowned. “You’re not wondering -?”

“- why you’re here? Nah”, the other one smiled. “Ryan told me you’d be coming down.”

Evan looked bewildered. “I told him I’m visiting people and checking on Bryce, I never said I’m visiting you.”

“And yet, here you are.”

Evan just stared at the man, who had childishly begun to spin his chair around. He eventually stopped and faced Evan again, pulling out his phone in the progress. Evan noted the amount of unread notification that Jonathan swiped out of his screen without a care, rather annoyed. Then Jonathan got up and shoved his phone into Evan’s face, the instagram video showing on it.

“You’re here because you’re worried about this.”

“Are you serious?”, Evan asked incredulously. “You couldn’t have just answered your fucking phone like everyone else? You had to make me fly across the States?”

“It was funny”, Jonathan shrugged, smiling again. As annoyed as Evan was, that smile made it difficult to stay mad at him. “Luke started it and we all joined in, you’re just easy to mess with. Besides, you never come to visit.”

“So this was just one massive plot to get me to visit?!”

“It wasn’t, no”, Jonathan denied but shrugged nonchalantly. “I guess now it is.”

“You piece of shit”, Evan snarled, scowling at a still beaming Jonathan until he finally gave in and just laughed. Jon turned off his phone and pocketed it before he hugged Evan.

“You know it”, he smirked as he let go before he indicated Evan to sit down on one of the chairs, he himself returning to his seat too. “Good to see you again.”

Evan couldn’t even take the time to realise how good Jonathan smelled since he let go too quickly. He sank into the chair and shook his head, still processing what had happened. “Great to see you too but I need to get this straight again – is Bryce in hospital?”

“No. He’s just fine.”

“And Ryan’s recorder -?”

“- wasn’t corrupted, no.”

“So -?”

“- this was all a massive setup, yeah.”

Evan buried his face in his hands, laughing. Of course they’d do that to him. He hadn’t expected Bryce to play along though. “Nobody’s gonna believe me…”

Jonathan just rolled his eyes and picked up his phone again, calling Bryce. Since he didn’t pick up, he tried Luke, who answered at once.

“What’s up? ‘s he there yet?”, Luke slurred.

“Yeah, he’s here”, Jonathan drawled, stifling his laughter when he met Evan’s deadpan expression. “Is Bryce with you?”

“Yeah. Is it time?”

“It is indeed, Mr Toonz. Tell Bryce to upload his video.”

“Alright, I will”, Luke agreed, sounding amused. Bryce was suddenly heard in the background and Luke briefly talked to him before returning to Jonathan. “He says he’s got it on USB with him. We’d upload it at mine but we left about twenty minutes ago.”

“Just upload it when you get here”, Jonathan ordered. He ended the call and got up, Evan still looking dejected where he sat. “Stop sulking. I’ll get us some drinks.”

Two minutes after Jon left, his phone rang again. Evan hesitantly picked it up and saw Luke’s name flashing on the screen. So Luke started all this… He decided to accept the call.

“Bryce’s got the video uploaded, we found a decent computer at the terminal”, Luke began. “Ryan’s with us. We’ll be there in a few.”

“Are you sure you want to be here in a few?”, Evan asked darkly. There was a squeal of laughter before Luke abruptly ended the call. Evan just shook his head and looked up, jumping when he noticed Jon standing in the doorway, holding two beers and laughing quietly.

Luke and Bryce eventually arrived with an exhausted Ryan in tow, grinning guiltily at the sight of Evan. They spent the evening playing video games and drinking, Evan constantly reminding Ryan and especially Bryce of their betrayal. Luke made it a point to stay as far away from Evan as possible, resulting in them smirking at each other across the room and flipping each other off. As much as he loved the time spent with his friends in person, he was still wary of his standing with Jonathan.

The night ended relatively early with most of them exhausted from their trips. Luke decided to drive home since they had forgotten to get Bryce’s suitcase from his place and volunteered to pick up more drinks and another console for more games for the week, leaving Bryce and Ryan to sleep on mattresses downstairs. Evan was privileged to take the only guest bedroom for the night until Luke would come along the next day to share with him. But for now, he was sitting in Jon’s office with his host, laughing over another bad joke which was made funny by tequila.

“I bet they will”, Jonathan hiccupped, smiling at his phone, which once again was playing the instagram clip. “Don’t see a reason why they wouldn’t.”

“Because I could’ve asked Bryce to cover me by imitating the audio or something”, Evan persisted, gesturing wildly with his hands to make his point. “They’d probably find a reason not to believe me, they always do.”

“Would you mind? If they didn’t believe you?”, Jon asked, flashing a slightly daring smile. Evan sighed and thought about it. His own answer surprised him.

“Nah”, he shrugged, putting his bottle down and resting his head on his arms. “It was embarrassing as shit but for some reason, I don’t mind as much anymore. It was good fun.”

“Yeah”, Jonathan trailed off, lost in thought. He mustered the video which was looping itself. “Those noises hardly sound like proper sex noises anyway.”

Evan mustered Jonathan out of the corner of his eyes, curious. “You mean you wouldn’t be speaking in a low purr and talking dirty like that?”

He didn’t know whether it was the tequila or the whiskey that gave him the nerve to ask that but it definitely caught Jonathan’s attention. Just the way the man looked up and scanned his eyes made Evan nervous again. Jonathan licked his lips and something like recognition flashed in his eyes. Evan’s heart was in his throat from anticipation.

“I might”, Jonathan finally said, eyes trained on his beer.

It wasn’t Evan’s first time thinking about it, by far. He’s had it bad for him for almost two years now. It was after the first time visiting Jon that he’d decided it wasn’t worth trying it if it meant their friendship would suffer from it. But that electrifying look in Jonathan’s eyes… Evan was too far to back out now.

“I’d like to know”, he murmured in a low voice.

“Why don’t you find out then?”

Evan blinked. “Really?”

Jonathan looked up fully, suddenly seeming sobered up after that mood kill. “What?”

“I can really – you’re really okay with – ?”

“God, you’re shit at this”, Jon scowled, getting up, leaning onto Evan’s chair’s armrests and kissing the other. Evan awkwardly held his breath but Jon moved away and prodded his stomach. Evan was forced to gasp for air while he was pulled out of his chair and out of the room. Once in the hallway, Jonathan kissed him again but this time Evan was ready for it and pushed back, crowding Jonathan’s space until he was backed up against the wall. Jon barely managed to get Evan into his bedroom that night, the scattered clothes in the hallway being proof of his heated struggle.

* * *

Luke was on the road back to Jonathan’s place relatively early, Bryce’s suitcase and party fuel filling the back seats and the trunk of his car. Once he drove up next to the house and killed the engine, the sun was barely visible behind some trees down the road, and checking his watch, he realised that most of them would probably still be sleeping.

Luke decided to just walk in and see if anyone was awake to help him unload his car. Out of habit, he pulled out his camera and started recording, hoping to maybe get his friends’ sleepy faces on the video.

As usual, he didn’t bother being quiet as he burst through the door, a loud morning greeting already on his lips, when both Bryce and Ryan stormed past him and out of the house, their expressions an odd mix of amusement and disgust. Luke frowned at the camera, confused, before walking into the house, standing still to be able to hear what was going on.

He really wished he hadn’t. The moans were much louder than last time and, more importantly, very real. The last thing the video showed was Luke storming back out of the house, looking like he had been scarred for life.

**Author's Note:**

> (Any feedback/suggestions are appreciated!)


End file.
